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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — Edwin Diaz left the New York Mets‘ 4-3, extra-innings win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday with left hip discomfort, splashing a bit of cold water on an otherwise festive conclusion to the club’s three-game sweep of its division rival and a perfect 7-0 homestand at Citi Field.
Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said Diaz was dealing with a cramp and, as of postgame Wednesday, the closer wasn’t scheduled for further testing. The Mets are off Thursday before beginning a four-game series against the Washington Nationals on Friday.
Diaz said he underwent strength tests with a doctor Wednesday and “everything was good.”
“As of right now, let’s see how I feel tomorrow,” Diaz said when asked whether he would be available to pitch Friday. “I feel strong. …We did some work on my hip and it was feeling better after. Let’s see how it feels on Friday.”
The Mets’ bullpen emerged Wednesday with a 2.34 ERA, the lowest in the majors. Diaz, however, has been a weak link in the young season with a 4.91 ERA in 11 innings across appearances.
On Wednesday, the two-time All-Star entered to record a clean ninth inning before he was summoned to pitch the 10th, marking the first time he was tasked to take down more than one inning this season.
He said the discomfort surfaced upon throwing a first-pitch fastball to J.T. Realmuto after giving up a go-ahead RBI single to Nick Castellanos. Diaz said he couldn’t lift his left leg when he came set in his delivery, which prompted him to step off to attempt to loosen up. He then stepped off two more times to surpass the mound disengagement limitation — pitchers are allowed to disengage twice and only a third time if it results in picking off a runner — and was called for a balk to move Castellanos to second base. With that, he signaled to the dugout and was pulled from the game.
“I was feeling great,” Diaz said. “I was throwing the ball really good today. I was commanding my pitches the way I want to.”
His exit pushed the umpires, citing injury, to reverse the balk ruling, which drew the ire of Phillies manager Rob Thomson. Ultimately, the Phillies stranded the bases loaded against Max Kranick, setting the stage for the Mets to score two runs and win the game on Starling Marte‘s walk-off single.
